Aspects of the present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to utilizing a dedicated reference signal for demodulating a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) in a wireless communication system.
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, wide band single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. For example, 5G NR (new radio) communications technology is envisaged to expand and support diverse usage scenarios and applications with respect to current mobile network generations. In an aspect, 5G communications technology includes enhanced mobile broadband addressing human-centric use cases for access to multimedia content, services and data; ultra-reliable-low latency communications (URLLC) with requirements, especially in terms of latency and reliability; and massive machine type communications for a very large number of connected devices, and typically transmitting a relatively low volume of non-delay-sensitive information. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in 5G communications technology and beyond. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
In long term evolution (LTE) networks, a cell specific reference signal (CRS) is transmitted which is used for demodulation of PBCH at a user equipment (UE). That is, for NR communications technology and beyond, the CRS is not utilized and/or transmitted.
Therefore, for NR communications technology and beyond (and with LTE communications technology, improvements in demodulation of the PBCH may be desired.